Make Your Voice Heard: Write a Personal and Persuasive Essay

Many of us have strong opinions right now—personal and political beliefs we want to express, causes we want to promote, professional insights we want to share. But it can be difficult to cut through the noise of social media and the 24-hour news stream. In this class, author and essayist Sara Eckel will show you how to write a persuasive essay and make your voice heard. Whether you're writing on a broad topic like health care or immigration, or something very personal, like how you met your spouse, this class will help you stand up for your beliefs and speak for others.

In this class, you'll learn to identify the stories from your life that will connect with readers, write an attention-grabbing opener, find the right facts to support your argument, and write a satisfying ending that will have readers clicking the share button.

By the end, you'll have an opinion piece that is the appropriate length and style for placement in a newspaper opinion page. Sara will also explain how to pitch your piece to newspapers, trade publications, blogs and other outlets.

This class is for:

• Beginning writers who want to learn the basics of personal and persuasive essays
• Activists advocating for a political or social issue
• Business owners and professionals seeking to raise awareness of their services and expertise
  
• Students writing essays for applications, tests and independent study projects
  
• More experienced writers looking to break into opinion journalism

• Introduction: Writing With Purpose
• Choosing a Topic
• The Rough Sketch
• The Lede
• The Nut Graf
• The Argument
• The Kicker
• Editing
• Pitching & Final Thoughts